Q&A: Torah from Heaven
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Torah from Heaven
Question
Hello Michi
1. Did the Torah given at Sinai also include oral interpretation? (A law given to Moses at Sinai.)
Since there are many verses that are not understandable without additional oral interpretation (such as ritual slaughter, Sabbath prohibitions, tefillin…)
Must we say that Moses received an additional oral component?
2. Following from that: were all the derivations through the 13 principles by which the Torah is interpreted also given through Moses (from God’s mouth)?
3. Am I able to formulate a verbal analogy and the like and disagree with earlier authorities? Or were these methods of derivation given only to the sages?
Answer
- It is reasonable that when the Torah was given, the meanings of the words were given as well. A text without understanding the words is nothing.
- It is accepted among the medieval authorities that this is so. In the second book in the Talmudic Logic series, I explained that this is a dynamic law given to Moses at Sinai, which develops over the years and was ultimately conceptualized as the principles of interpretation.
- Anyone can and should use the principles of interpretation, if he knows how to do so. Of course, what he does is not binding on others. What is binding on others applies only to someone regarding whom there is “do not deviate.”